Jacob Colosimo has spoken of his love for the Club, as he returns from a 9-month injury to re-commit to the Knights for his seventh season at Somers Street.
Talking to melbourneknights.com.au after re-signing, the 23-year-old said he never considered a move away from Knights Stadium and said his recovery from a horrendous knee injury was going well.
“It’s good – this will be my seventh year at the Club,” Colosimo confirmed.
“It’s the same as usual I guess! I love being at the Club, I don’t think I’d want to be anywhere else, to be honest – it feels like home!”
“Pre-season’s been good. The last week I’ve been able to join in for most of the sessions, joining in with games and things like that.
“The knee feels good, I’m training well and hopefully I have a bit more luck this year with injuries and stuff.”
The Knights forward man returned to pre-season training during the last couple of weeks, which he says has him hopeful of featuring in pre-season fixtures come February.
“The recovery has been going good – it’s been going to plan,” Colosimo said.
“So far, it’s felt good joining in with the team and I haven’t really felt it (the knee).
“I’ve been getting back into it slowly. I’m hopefully looking at around start the of February to start playing practice games and things like that. At the moment, everything’s going well and going to plan, but we’ll see how we go.”
However, the striker isn’t getting carried away and acknowledged that he could be 100% fit only after a number of games into the 2015 PS4 NPL Victoria season.
“Hopefully by round one I’ll be ready.
“I probably won’t be 100% fit – match fitness wise – because I haven’t really played a game for about nine months now.
“But I’m hoping that I’ll be ready for either round one or maybe even a couple of rounds into the season.
“But the way it’s going now, I think I should be ready.”
Having got back into the swing of things – training wise – Colosimo said he was suprised at how quickly things like his ball control returned to him after nearly nine months away from the game.
“The first session that I joined in with the team, it was a bit hard – with my touches and stuff like that – getting back into it,” he said.
“But over the week, it’s just come back I guess, like it’s funny how it happens – it just comes so quick. So it’s looking good at the moment but I’ve probably got a bit to go until I’m 100%.”
Looking to the season ahead, Colosimo – like many of his other formerly injured teammates – says his goal for the new campaign is a straightforward one.
“For myself, hopefully play a few more games!
“I think, on a team level, I think we have a pretty strong squad and I think we will be challenging for the top spot this year.
“I think last year, without all the injuries, we would have challenged for the title but that’s how it goes, we had a bit of bad luck last year.
“But I think if everything goes well, I think we’ll be right up there.”
Melbourne Knights will get a chance to show its new squad in the Club’s first competitive match of the year on January 25th for the Friendship Cup against Sydney United, before the season proper gets underway on February 20th when Avondale FC travel to Knights Stadium.